TEP fights bill they claim victimizes foster children

By Logan Langlois

NASHVILLE, TN — SB1738, a bill that has been criticized as a threat to the rights of trans foster children by civil rights groups such as the Tennessee Equality Project (TEP), was passed on second consideration and referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee in late January. This bill introduced by District 32 Senator Paul Rose (R-Lauderdale, Shelby, Tipton) would prohibit “the Department of Children’s Services from requiring an adoptive or foster parent to support a policy on sexual orientation or gender identity that conflicts with the parent’s sincerely held religious or moral beliefs.”

“Honestly I was mortified,” said Jace Wilder, of the Tennessee Equality Project. “It is one thing to go after the community in general, it is one thing to go after adults. But it is another thing to go after the livelihood of foster children who are already in very sensitive situations that need our protection and need our comfort.”

Wilder said as an Education Manager, he does a lot of teaching about the trans experience and advocacy with individuals, media, and state legislators. What makes him especially vocal about this bill however is his history in health policy and LGBTQ+ research TEP. Wilder said that not only does this bill violate the civil rights of trans foster children, it also helps build a legal system and foster care system that leads to trans foster children becoming repeatedly traumatized throughout their adolescence.

“It will ruin the relationship between that child and any foster parent,” Wilder said. “Because, then the expectation becomes that they are going to be rejected. It creates its own form of trauma in which that child is introduced over and over again to rejection and unloving family.”

Wilder said there is already data available via a Human Rights Campaign study that shows over 70 percent of LGBTQ+ foster children will end up in a household in which their sexual orientation or gender identity is rejected, and over 70 percent of these children will then run away because of it. Wilder said the federal policy that SB1738 fights against would create protections for these children, so they don’t end up in and out of the foster care system repeatedly. The federal policy would do this by sending them to a home that would support their identity on the first try.

“What this bill is trying to say is not only do you not have to do that, but actually that the foster parent has the right to discriminate against that child,” Wilder said. “Which goes against the DCS policy that the child’s best interest comes first.”

Wilder said the bill could also inadvertently affect religious freedom due to its phrasing, which details how the parent can use a religious or moral belief as justification. He said this wording could also work to, for example, allow atheist parents to prevent Christian children from worshiping in their atheist home.

“This could just create a cycle of bullying within itself and open up a whole [other] chapter … of legislation or TCA, to say that these parents don’t have to comply with DCS code,” Wilder said. “That they, as long as they have a moral belief or religious freedom reason, can abuse that to hurt a child.”

Wilder said that TEP hopes to have state representatives listen to the stories of some of the people in the community they would be affecting.

“What they’re obviously not hearing and have not taken the time to do is hear from the LGBTQ kids, and families that are going to be affected by this legislation.”